host.donotremove - Aix

This is a discussion on host.donotremove - Aix ; Hi All,
There is a file with name "host.donotremove" present in the /etc
directoy of AIX 4.1.5, what is the purpose of that file.
I have looked at the resources availabel to me but do not find any
reference for ...

host.donotremove

There is a file with name "host.donotremove" present in the /etc
directoy of AIX 4.1.5, what is the purpose of that file.

I have looked at the resources availabel to me but do not find any
reference for the same.

Regards,
nurxb01

Re: host.donotremove

On Oct 4, 3:16 am, nurx...@gmail.com wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> There is a file with name "host.donotremove" present in the /etc
> directoy of AIX 4.1.5, what is the purpose of that file.
>
> I have looked at the resources availabel to me but do not find any
> reference for the same.
>
> Regards,
> nurxb01

AIX 4.1.5 is so old that whoever built and maintained that system is
probably
long gone. When I started working, many years ago in mainframe land,
the system
programmers (think sysadmins) at my first job realized that every copy
they had of the
boot volume contained a library called sys1.utvlib. Nothing in any IBM
manuals
mentioned it. It contained a few COBOL programs. After scratching
their heads for weeks
and worrying they finally remembered that a few years before they had
had a co-op
student working for them and his initials were UTV. He created a
library file to store his
homework in and just followed the apparent naming convention of all
the other files
on the volume. The moral of the story is just because a file is in a
system location
doesn't mean it has anything to do with the OS. Take a look at what's
in the file. If you're
feeling lucky just rm it.

Regards,
Jim Lane

Re: host.donotremove

yes aix 4.1.5 is awfully old system and not much information is
availabale.

The contains of the file are as follows
################ START ( not a part of file ) #############

#
# If the yellow pages is running, this file is only consulted when
booting
#
# These lines added by the Suninstall Program
#
#
# Ip addresses 127 is reserved for loopback
127.0.0.1 localhost

#
# End of lines added by the Suninstall Program
################ END ( not a part of file ) #############

Though i dare not to remove it but for now i'm taking the files as one
of the not required files.
Thanks for the idea of unnecessary system files.

Re: host.donotremove

On Oct 9, 7:30 am, nurx...@gmail.com wrote:
> yes aix 4.1.5 is awfully old system and not much information is
> availabale.
>
> The contains of the file are as follows
> ################ START ( not a part of file ) #############
>
> #
> # If the yellow pages is running, this file is only consulted when
> booting
> #
> # These lines added by the Suninstall Program
> #
> #
> # Ip addresses 127 is reserved for loopback
> 127.0.0.1 localhost
>
> #
> # End of lines added by the Suninstall Program
> ################ END ( not a part of file ) #############
>
> Though i dare not to remove it but for now i'm taking the files as one
> of the not required files.
> Thanks for the idea of unnecessary system files.

Given the content as posted this looks like a file that has something
to do
with NIS. Perhaps you could grep around in /etc to se if there is
another file
containing the same or similar content. I'm speculating that this is
a
backup that somebody took way back when using an "imaginative" name.